1.1. BACKGROUND
Strategic planning for energy supply system evolution including nuclear energy therein requires a sound understanding of all issues in the areas of energy demand evaluation, general energy supply1, and nuclear energy2. The deployment of a nuclear power programme has intergenerational implications and obligations extending well beyond 100 years. The IAEA offers tools and support for long-term energy system planning and nuclear energy system assessment. INPRO methodology is a tool for the assessment of sustainability of nuclear energy systems that was originally created between 2001 and 2003 under the aegis of the IAEA using broad philosophical outlines of the concept of sustainable development. INPRO basic principles, user requirements and criteria have been defined for assessing nuclear energy system sustainability in different areas, i.e. economics, infrastructure (legal and institutional measures), waste management, proliferation resistance, environmental impact of stressors, environmental impact from depletion of resources, safety of nuclear reactors and safety of nuclear fuel cycle facilities. The INPRO basic principles establish goals that should be met in order to achieve long term sustainability of a nuclear energy system. An INPRO user requirement of sustainability defines what different stakeholders (users) in a nuclear energy system should do to meet the goal defined in the basic principle. A criterion enables the assessor to check whether a user requirement has been met. Full scope application of the INPRO methodology is a holistic metric of sustainability of the nuclear energy system, defining a list of gaps to be closed to achieve sustainability.
In the last two decades the INPRO methodology has been revised several times and the latest full edition of the INPRO manuals was published in 2008 [1]. The latest revision and update of the methodology manuals has been commenced in 2012 and by 2020 the IAEA has published seven new INPRO methodology manuals for sustainability assessment in the areas of economics [2], infrastructure [3], waste management [4], environmental impact of stressors [5], environmental impact from depletion of resources [6], safety of nuclear reactors [7] and safety of nuclear fuel cycle facilities [8].
One possible output from the INPRO sustainability assessment of a nuclear energy system is the identification of areas where a given system needs to be improved. Given the comprehensive nature of an assessment using the INPRO methodology, such an assessment would be expected to indicate clearly the specific attributes of a nuclear energy system that need to be improved.
Unlike the full scope INPRO sustainability assessment the limited scope study can be more focused on the selected INPRO methodology areas and / or selected nuclear energy system installations under development checking whether this installation can meet the sustainability requirements in a given assessment area. Limited scope INPRO assessments are expected to be performed at relatively early stages of a nuclear energy system development and deployment when they can help to identify new complementary R&D studies and technical or institutional improvements which can be implemented with no excessive costs.
INPRO methodology has been applied several times to the nuclear energy systems based on evolutionary water cooled reactors [9]. A few early attempts to perform INPRO assessment of
1 For example, resources, climate change effects and national development.
2 For example, nuclear safety, infrastructure, economics, waste management.
innovative reactors including sodium cooled fast reactor did not involve a full depth consideration of the design related criteria mainly because of lack of input data [10].
1.2. OBJECTIVE
This publication provides an example of the limited scope INPRO sustainability assessment of an innovative nuclear energy system using the fast reactor BN-1200 as a case study. The INPRO assessment performed at the full depth criteria level helped to identify actions, including potential research development and demonstration, for sustainable long term deployment of sodium cooled fast reactors.
This publication discusses the application of the INPRO sustainability assessment method to the innovative nuclear energy system based on fast reactor BN-1200 in the areas of economics and safety of nuclear reactors. The case study is intended to verify readiness of the updated INPRO Methodology for assessment of the sodium cooled fast reactors and to develop recommendations for further improvements and updates of the INPRO assessment method.
This publication is intended for use by organizations involved in the development and deployment of the nuclear energy systems including planning, design, modification, technical support and operation for nuclear power plants. Data provided in this publication can be used in further detailed INPRO sustainability assessments of the nuclear energy systems based on BN-1200 reactors, sustainability assessments of other fast reactors and in scenario modelling studies involving fast reactors which can be carried out by the technology holders and technology users.
1.3. SCOPE
Limited scope INPRO sustainability assessment of sodium cooled fast reactors was performed in 20152019 in parallel as a series of bilateral studies between the developers of fast reactors and the IAEA in a few countries developing such reactors. Every study was conducted as a self-assessment exercise performed by the national designer experts focused on their own design and supported by the IAEA staff.
This publication presents the results of the case study of the INPRO assessment of BN-1200 reactor in the INPRO areas of economics and reactor safety. The BN-1200 assessment has been performed by the Russian Federation experts from the Institute of Physics and Power Engineering with the support provided by JSC Afrikantov OKB Mechanical Engineering. It is based on assessors’ experience and publicly available data, taking into account proprietary information concerns.
This INPRO methodology sustainability assessment study is focused on the nuclear power plants that produce primarily electricity, heat or combinations of the two3. This publication does not explicitly consider economics and safety issues related to other non-electric applications (hydrogen production, desalination, etc.) or to cogeneration involving such energy products. It is expected that as more detailed information is acquired on the safety of interactions between a reactor and industrial facilities located on the same site, the INPRO criteria and the assessment studies may be modified accordingly.
3 For example, all NPPs of Russian design provide small amounts of energy in the form of heat used for district heating, greenhouse heating, etc., by local communities.
The INPRO methodology user requirements and criteria for sustainability assessment are formulated in a generic manner to make them applicable to both evolutionary and innovative reactors based on different technologies. However, innovative reactors with a lower level of design maturity may require modifications or clarifications of selected criteria. Such potential changes will be considered in future revisions of the INPRO methodology after sufficient experience has been accrued from INPRO assessments of such reactors.
The INPRO methodology manual for sustainability assessment does not establish any specific safety requirements, recommendations or guidance. IAEA safety requirements and guidance are only issued in the IAEA Safety Standards Series. Therefore, the basic principles, user requirements and associated criteria contained in the INPRO methodology have been used for sustainability assessments only. This INPRO assessment study should not be used for formal or authoritative safety assessments or safety analyses to address compliance with the IAEA Safety Standards or for any national regulatory purpose associated with the licensing or certification of nuclear facilities, technologies or activities. Data presented in this report do not represent the national practices required in the regulations and should be considered as a proposal by the experts for possible approaches to assess sustainable development of nuclear energy systems.
The sustainability issues relevant to safety of the facilities of closed nuclear fuel cycle and waste management are outside of the scope of this publication.
1.4. STRUCTURE
This publication follows the relationship between the concept of sustainable development and INPRO methodology areas of economics and reactor safety. Section 2 provides general information on the fast reactor development programme in the Russian Federation, to set the context. Section 3 presents the INPRO sustainability assessment of BN-1200 in the area of economics. This includes an overview of the application of the INPRO methodology area of economics to the fast reactors under development, information on the improvement of economic characteristics of sodium cooled fast reactors in the Russian Federation, basic results of analysis and sustainability assessment of BN-1200 in the area of economics. Section 4 presents the INPRO sustainability assessment on the criterion level in the area of reactor safety including assessment of the design robustness, detection and interception of anticipated operational occurrences, design basis accidents, severe plant conditions, independence of levels of defence in depth, inherent safety characteristics, passive safety systems, human factors related to safety and necessary research, development and demonstration. Section 5 summarises the discussion and suggests conclusions on the performed study.